


falling slowly, falling fast

by sunsethue



Series: April child Lee Jeno [3]
Category: NCT (Band), NCT Dream, WAYV
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-20
Updated: 2019-04-20
Packaged: 2020-01-20 20:23:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18532492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunsethue/pseuds/sunsethue
Summary: Jeno has only known Kunhang as “Renjun’s friend.” There is nothing memorable about him because Renjun is friends with half of the college’s population. That is until Kunhang invades his life and starts becoming something more.





	falling slowly, falling fast

Jeno believes he is a very laidback and easy-going person. He may not be the one to initiate friendships because he is shy, but he is not a very fussy companion and can adjust well to different cliques and situations.

Still, Jeno thinks it is an exaggeration in Renjun’s part to volunteer him to a double date.

“Why did you even think I would say yes to this, Renjun?” Jeno says, with a sigh. “You know how awkward I am around new people.”

“Because you always keep humming love songs at home so I felt you are finally interested to date!” Renjun replies. “Plus it’s not even a sit down date. We are just meeting two new friends who can potentially be our boyfriends in a party.”

“That makes it worse. If it’s one meal, there is a time limit. But an open party like this would mean it can drag for hours. And what if I get separated from you or my date? I don’t even know anyone there,” Jeno argues. 

“You don’t really have to talk to anyone except for your date but if you’re really picky then Jisung will be there!” Renjun disagrees. “You will have at least one friend that isn’t me.”

“To you, Jisung is a friend. To me, Jisung is a classmate I worked together for a project last semester,” Jeno says.

Renjun pouts. “I thought group works are supposed to be the best way to foster long time friendships and all the bull shit. Did you get a good grade in that class then if you can’t even consider him your friend?” 

“Stop changing the topic, Renjun. Of all the people you know in Korea, why would you sign me up to this date without even consulting with me first?” Jeno asks. “It’s like a desperate move so I’m curious if your reason it as trivial as because I’m the only one you can bully into this or is it as deep as because you have faith in my social skills and friendliness.” 

Renjun mumbles a reply that Jeno did not understand.

“I can’t hear you.”

“It’s because you are the only one who will agree with me,” Renjun says. “It’s been six months since Yukhei and I broke up and I want to start meeting people again. And I need your moral support.’

 

*

Saying yes to Renjun is a big mistake and Jeno regrets it as soon as he entered the venue of the party. 

The house is almost like a mansion and it belongs to one Chenle Zhong. Jeno recalls Renjun telling him that this Chenle’s family is one of the richest in China.

Renjun was Jeno’s first friend in college. They sat next to each other during the freshmen orientation and they helped each other finalize their schedule and find their correct classrooms. After two years of friendship, they decided to rent an apartment together with their other friends, Jaemin and Donghyuck.

But Renjun has a wider circle of friends. He has diverse interests and joined different clubs so it’s inevitable for Renjun to build networks and have more extra-curricular activities. 

Renjun is always talking about new people to Jeno and he can’t always keep up in matching names and faces when Renjun introduces them to him so he just label them all in his mind as “Renjun’s friends.”

 

“Your date for tonight is one of my friends from the Student Astronomers club. I think you met Kunhang in passing already. He’s introducing me to one of his team mates from the swim team. Don’t feel too pressured, Kunhang is pretty chill.” 

“Astronomers club but a swimmer? Interesting mix,” Jeno says. “But we might have nothing in common.”

“Don’t say that. Give this a chance. He’s a robotic engineering student so maybe you’ll find interesting topics to talk about,” Renjun says.

Jeno laughs. “Renjun, I built toy gundams. That’s very different from wanting to design actual robots and robot systems. He already sounds so different from me I’m sure he’d get bored in my presence easily. You didn’t have to make this a double date, really.”

“I’m doing this for both our sakes, Jen. If you end up having fun with him, you owe me breakfast for a week.” Renjun says.

Kunhang and his friend Dejun arrive just a few minutes after them, profusely apologizing for being late. Jeno was not even surprised that Renjun have met Dejun already before.

“It was a very brief meeting,” Renjun says. “Dejun applied for the school chorale together with me but did not push through with his application.”

“I got accepted in the swim team too during that time so I had to choose one,” Dejun explains.

Renjun and Dejun called meeting again tonight as “fate” and Jeno can’t help but raise his eyebrow. 

Jeno’s not even sure if Renjun is already over Yukhei so all this flirting is overwhelming him.

But Jeno can’t worry about Renjun now, not when his own date is smiling prettily at him and making his heart race.

“Jeno right?” Kunhang asks. “Renjun has told me so much about you.”

“Oh,” Jeno says. “Then there’s no problem if I embarrass myself to you tonight since Renjun already did that for me”

Kunhang laughs and Jeno can’t help but laugh too.

“We don’t need to stick together,” Renjun says. “Take care of Jeno okay?” he adds, nodding to Kunhang.

Kunhang simply did a thumbs up before asking Jeno if he wants to get a drink.

They moved to the bar and Jeno was surprised by the scale of the house that it has its own bar where guests can mix their own drinks. Both he and Kunhang opted to simply grab a beer.

“I don’t really drink,” Jeno says.

“That’s okay. I want to stay sober too since, technically, it’s our first date,” Kunhang replies.

Jeno feels his cheeks blush. He’s pleasantly surprised that Kunhang seems interested in him.

 

They decide to sit by the poolside, away from the noise but not in a very secluded place.

Kunhang is friendly and he initiates the conversation, which helped Jeno feel at ease. He’s usually quiet when around new people that Renjun even commented before that he looks aloof and scary. 

But Kunhang asks the right questions without making Jeno feel invaded. He also tells the funniest stories and laughs at Jeno’s own stories too. They’ve both finished their beers but opted to stay in their spot and just talk. 

“I’ve met you before,” Kunhang says. “But I don’t think you remember me.”

Jeno frowns, trying to remember Kunhang, but failing miserably. “I’m sorry, I’m not really good in remembering people. And I’ve probably flushed out all my memories last two years during the summer vacation.”

Kunhang laughs and shakes his head. “No it’s okay. It was a very brief meeting and we were in the library back then so we didn’t actually talk to each other. Renjun just introduced us briefly. But he often talks about you so I feel like I’ve known you for a while now.”

This reminded Jeno that he only agreed to this party for Renjun’s sake. 

“I’m sorry, Kunhang. You seem like a really good guy. But maybe we can postpone this… date for now? I only agreed to this because Renjun is still hung up on his ex-boyfriend. So I’m a bit worried and I think I should at least be near him in case something? For your friend Dejun too.”

Kunhang laughs, surprising Jeno. “Then I guess he and Dejun are really fated tonight. Dejun liked someone for so long but never managed to ask him out so he’s trying this blind date thing now to move on.”

“Want to find them?” Kunhang says. Jeno replies with a nod, feeling more relief that his date is very understanding. 

When they got back inside the house, they spot Renjun and Dejun in the makeshift dance floor. By the looks of it, both are enjoying. 

“Seems like they are doing well,” Kunhang says. 

“I guess we don’t need to intrude anymore,” Jeno agrees.

“Want to dance?” Kunhang offers. 

Jeno found no reason to refuse. He loves dancing, probably the only thing he loves outside of school work. He usually doesn’t dance with strangers but Kunhang doesn’t feel like a stranger anymore. 

“Sure,” he agrees.

Dancing with Kunhang feels like a bliss. Jeno can’t help but be charmed by the boy. Three songs later, Kunhang asks “Want to leave this party?”

“Where will we go?” Jeno replies. He checks his phone and sees that it’s already past one in the morning. 

“I have my car so we can drive somewhere. Let’s catch the sunrise over the hill we talked about then eat pancakes in the diner your friend told you about.”

“We have to wait for at least four more hours, Kunhang. That’s a really crazy idea.”

“That’s not a no,” Kunhang says with a playful smile on his face.

“What if we get bored or sleepy?” Jeno says.

“If you get sleepy, you sleep. Then I’ll wake you up when the sun rises.”

Jeno considers Kunhang’s invitation. His only worry is if it’s okay to spend such a long time with a person he just met. What if Kunhang gets bored or what if they find they don’t really get along well outside the ambiance of a party. He tries to suppress his insecurity and if things get awkward he’d just sleep or go home.

“This is an incredibly crazy plan for someone like me but let’s go,” he says, earning a bright smile from Kunhang. 

*

Hours later, when the sun has fully risen and his tummy is filled with delicious pancakes, Jeno tiptoes as quietly as possible inside his apartment.

But even before he reaches his bedroom, he hears a cough from the dining area.

He sighs as he realized he can’t escape his friends’ prying.

Renjun, Jaemin, and Donghyuck are looking at him with smirks on their faces. 

“Oh would you look at that, our very own Lee Jeno on his first walk of shame,” Donghyuck says.

“When you said you were leaving the party I thought you were going home before me,” Renjun says. “Imagine my surprise when I saw your bedroom empty.”

“So where did you go, Jen?” Jaemin asks. “Come tell your best friends the details. Renjun tells us your date is really cute.”

“I don’t want full details, Jaemin,” Renjun says. “They’re both my friends. I don’t need details of them doing the deed.”

“Why do you assume we did something like that,” Jeno scoffs.

“You go home early in the morning after a hot date, what were we supposed to think?” Donghyuck says.

“Well you are all wrong. We simply hanged out and talked while waiting for the sunrise,” Jeno says. “Though at some point I think we both fell asleep but we still managed to see it. Then we ate pancakes at Cherry Bomb. You were right Hyuck, their pancakes are amazing.”

Jeno’s friends all looked at him with full confusion on their faces.

“Nothing happened? Not even a kiss?” Jaemin asks.

Jeno blushed as he remembers the kiss on his cheek that Kunhang left after dropping him at their doorstep. 

“None of your business,” Jeno says. “It was a fun date and I think I made a new friend, so thank you Renjun.”

“Wow, so I guess it’s a failure since you called him a friend,” Donghyuck says.

“I don’t know yet, let’s take this one step at a time. I wasn’t even looking for a relationship when I agreed to this date,” Jeno says.

“Jeno’s right. Let’s not predict anything. I’m just glad you and Kunhang got a long,” Renjun says.

“Thank you. It was a good night and you looked like you had fun too. Now, can I catch some sleep first?” Jeno says.

After finally letting him go, Jeno washed up and lied on his bed. It was indeed a good first date, he thinks to himself as he drifts to sleep.

*

Jeno usually has vacant afternoons on Thursdays and he is usually alone because his friends all have classes so he spends that free time doing his chores at home. There isn’t much to clean this week though because it’s not exams month and they are only usually messy when there are exams.

So Jeno was pleasantly surprised to see Jaemin at home. 

“You don’t have classes right?” Jaemin asks as soon as he enters.

“Yeah. Why are you home?” Jeno asks.

“My last two classes were cancelled. A classmate in my Humanities class invited me to watch his game today. It sounded interesting so I agreed. Let’s watch together,” Jaemin says.

“Just the two of us? No other new people I have to meet or what?” Jeno asks.

“Just us. Why? I thought your date a few weeks ago was fine?” Jaemin asks.

“It was. But then we exchanged contact numbers and you know how I find chatting online awkward. I may have left him on read for prolonged period of time so he hasn’t messaged me again. Guess it was just a one-time thing,” Jeno says, pouting just a bit. “So I don’t want a repeat of that set-up anytime soon.”

“Oh our poor big baby,” Jaemin says. “It takes a lot of effort to break into your barrier but you are worth it. This Kunhang guy seems weak. Anyway, don’t worry. We’ll just watch the game then eat dinner together. No blind dates and prospective boyfriends for you anytime soon.”

“You make it sound like I’m bitter and anti-social,” Jeno says.

“You’re not, Jen. It’s the same for all of us. Meeting new people and opening up to them is not easy for everyone. So just go through it at your own pace.”

*

Jaemin may have given Jeno comforting words but he unintentionally led him to that tight spot he has been avoiding too. 

“Why are you in the university pool, Jaemin?”

“Because I told you, we are watching a swim meet.”

“You did not tell me that! Jaemin, Kunhang is part of the university’s swimming team!”

Jaemin’s eyes widens, then he shakes his head. He pulls Jeno to the entrance of the venue where several white boards are set up. 

“Wait, Jen, maybe he’s not competing today.”

“How would you know?”

“See,” Jaemin says as he points to the white boards. “The audience are supposed to do a popularity vote today for the players competing. You put stickers beside the name of the player you like. There is no Kunhang.”

Jeno reads the names one by one and nods. He breaths out a heavy sigh after confirming no familiar names on the white boards. 

“Besides, the players won’t see us in the audience. They’d be busy swimming or watching swimmers. We’ll stay on the top seats and I’ll just text Xiaojun after the competition,” Jaemin says. “Ah, speaking of Xiaojun let’s give him our votes. He’s really nice guy and he always brings me treats in our shared class.”

“Ohh… our Nana has an admirer,” Jeno teases.

“No, he’s just really nice,” Jaemin says. “So let’s cheer for him today.”

 

As expected, the universe is against Jeno. Because right there with their university team competing tonight is Kunhang. 

“Jaemin, he’s here,” Jeno whines. Jaemin asks where but before Jeno can respond, a loud cheer erupted in the venue already.

“Hey Jen! Xiaojun won! I think? That’s him who reached the end first.”

Jeno squints to look at the swimmer who won. “Hey, that’s Dejun.”

“Dejun? Renjun’s date?” 

“Yes. And the guy next to him is Kunhang.” 

“Oh,” Jaemin says, softly. “What an unfortunate twist I guess.”

They stayed for the announcement of winners and they were both surprised when the cheers for Kunhang were “Hendery.” 

“Who’s Hendery?” Jaemin whispers to Jeno.

Jeno shrugs. “Don’t know.”

*

The following days after the swim meet were awkward in their apartment. Jaemin was quiet, Jeno was moody, Renjun and Donghyuck were confused. But no one knew how to break the awkward atmosphere.

That is until the day Renjun brings Yukhei home to their apartment.

“We talked again a month ago, decided to be friends. Then we realized we still liked each other. So last week we started dating again. Xuxi misses you all so I thought maybe we can all have a movie night tonight?” Renjun says, smiling brightly.

Donghyuck is happy. Jeno is surprised. But Jaemin… Jaemin looks angry.

“Renjun can we talk?” Jaemin says, then turning around to go to his bedroom.

Confused, Renjun mutters an “okay” and follows Jaemin.

Jeno, Donghyuck, and Yukhei wait in the living room, all watching with hawk eyes the door of Jaemin’s room.

Fifteen minutes later, Jaemin rushes out and left their apartment. Renjun comes out of Jaemin’s room, laughing. 

“Care to explain what happened?” Jeno asks.

Renjun takes a seat with them and explains that it’s about Dejun. 

“Jaemin likes this guy in his class. Which happened to be Dejun, the one I went on a date with,” Renjun explains. 

“You dated someone behind my back?!” Yukhei says.

“Oh shut up, love. We were not together back then and it was just one night. He’s just a friend. I’ll introduce him to you next time,” Renjun says. 

“Everyone’s your friend except if they are your boyfriend, Renjun,” Donghyuck says.

“And I only have one boyfriend,” Renjun says. “Anyway, so Dejun officially asked Jaemin out but Jaemin thought I liked Dejun because I was happy after that one and only night we dated. So he broke Dejun’s heart. Then he found out I am back with Xuxi so he got mad, momentarily.”

“But that doesn’t explain why he rushed out,” Donghyuck says. 

“He’s meeting Dejun. Apparently, Dejun asked him out again tonight and said he’d wait for Jaemin by the gym no matter how long it takes.”

“Wait…” Jeno says. “So the guy Kunhang talked about that Dejun likes was… Jaemin?”

“I only found out today too,” Renjun says. “By the way, have you talked to Kunhang recently?”

“Am I supposed to keep in touch with him?” Jeno asks with a frown.

“Oh. So you two didn’t really get along well that night? I thought there was some potential between the two of you,” Renjun says.

“I thought we got along well too,” Jeno says, quietly. “Apparently I was wrong.”

“Kunhang thinks you don’t like him,” Renjun says. “He told me he really likes you but you don’t seem interested.”

“It was awkward,” Jeno admits. “I didn’t know how to initiate conversations with him when he’s not in front of me anymore. I’m not sure too of what I really wanted.”

“You don’t have to rush to anything,” Renjun says. “It seems like Kunhang really likes you and he did say he would like to be friends with you too. So maybe you two can start there, no pressure and just see where it leads you.”

“If you choose to be just friends, I’m sure this Kunhang person will understand too,” Donghyuck says. “I haven’t met these guys yet and they are giving me headaches already. I’m not sure I’ll say yes if Renjun sets me up on a date with someone.”

“Hey! You already agreed to meet Mark next week! You can’t back out anymore,” Renjun says.

“You set Donghyuck up with Mark?” Yukhei asks. “This will be a disaster, love. How will Mark survive Donghyuck?”

Jeno tunes out his friends for a minute. He thinks about Renjun’s words to him. He checks his phone and scrolls to the last time he and Kunhang chatted five weeks ago. Kunhang asked if Jeno wanted to study together in the library, which Jeno thinks is possibly a lame but endearing excuse to see him. He read the messages but never replied anymore.  
Maybe he should give it a try, Jeno convinces himself as he types a message to Kunhang, crossing fingers he will not be left on read.

*

Friendship with Kunhang is easy. Just like their first “date,” Kunhang was easy to talk to and they got along very well. Jeno learns "Hendery" is Kunhang's nickname in the swim team. He's gone to support Kunhang in more matches and Jeno can't deny how attractive Kunhang is as he smoothly glides in the water.

They spend a lot of time either studying together or going out to eat together or watch movies with their friends. Sometimes they just hang out in each other's rooms, learning more about each other. Kunhang is still very interested in Jeno and Jeno is enjoying his company.

Jeno takes his time, fixing his own insecurities and enjoying the moments he gets to spend with his new friend. Kunhang is no longer just Renjun’s friend. Nor a successful blind date. 

Kunhang is now Jeno’s friend, someone who understands him, who cares for him, and is genuinely interested in him. Maybe, in the coming weeks, hopefully, Kunhang can be his boyfriend. Jeno is working on the confidence to ask him out on a date, officially this time.


End file.
